a monkey king whose general, Hanuman (wholater became a monkey deity), finds Sita in Lanka. In a cosmic battle, Ravanais defeated and Sita rescued. When Rama is restored to his kingdom, Sitaschastity while captive is doubted. To reassure them, Rama banishes Sita to ahermitage, where she bears him two sons and eventually dies by reenteringthe earth from which she had been born. Ramas reign becomes the prototype of the harmonious and just kingdom, to which all kingdoms should aspire. Rama and Sita set the ideal of conjugal love; Ramas relationship tohis father is the ideal of filial love; and Rama and Laksmana represent perfect fraternal love. In all but its oldest form, the Ramayana identifies Rama with Vishnu as another incarnation and remains the principle source for Ramaism (worship or Rama). In the Mahabharata, Krishna is primarily a hero, a chieftain of a tribe, and an ally of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Mahabharata. He accomplishes heroic feats with the Pandava prince Arjuna.Typically he helps the Pandava brothers to settle in their kingdom, and when the kingdom is taken from them, to regain it. In the process he emerges as a great teacher who reveals the Bhagavadgita, the most important religious text of Hinduism. In the further development of the Krishna myth, it is found that as a child, Krishna was full of boyish pranks and well known for hispredilection for milk and butter. He would raid the dairies of the gopies(milkmaids) to steal fruit, milk, and butter, and would accuse others for hismisdeeds. Krishna is the most celebrated deity of the Hindu pantheon. He isworshipped as an independent god in his own right, but is also regarded as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. In the course of life he was supposed tohave had 16,108 wives and 180,008 sons. In the epic he is a hero, a leader of his people, and an active helper of his friends. Shiva is the third person of the Hindu Trinity. As Brahma was Creator, Vishnu Preserver, in ...
